It has not been a storybook start to Florian Wirtz’s career at Liverpool — and now the Germany international has experienced his first benching by head coach Arne Slot.
The Daily Mail broke the news this
way:
Florian Wirtz has been benched by Liverpool manager Arne Slot for the champions’ clash with Chelsea.
The £116million man, signed from Bayer Leverkusen for a British record fee over the summer, has failed to hit the ground running since swapping Germany for Merseyside, and has not scored or assisted in his opening six Premier League appearances.
His form has drawn criticism from fans and pundits, with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher calling for Slot to ‘take him out of the team’ following their Champions League defeat in midweek by Galatasaray.
And Slot has heeded those calls by benching Wirtz for Saturday afternoon’s game in London.
‘Right now I don’t think the balance of the team is right and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz,’ Carragher said on CBS after Tuesday’s defeat.
‘He’s just not at the races at all. He’s a young boy coming into a new league – he has got plenty of time to go as Liverpool player but right now I think he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool go back to what they were last season and then go from there and build some confidence, build some defensive stability. Because right now it is a mess.’
While not totally uncommon for a player to get a day off, this was against Chelsea in a marquee matchup for Liverpool and Wirtz was the club’s transfer of the summer. There is no sugarcoating it, it is a bad look for a player off to an inauspicious start.
Entering the match, Wirtz had one assist in nine games across all competitions and that set-up came in Liverpool’s Community Shield match vs. Crystal Palace back on August 10th.
Hopefully, the German can things around…quickly.
Bayern Munich has one more weekend of action before another international break, but that does not mean there is a lack of suitable topics to discuss.
Let’s take a look at what we have on tap for this edition of the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show:
- Champions League Power Rankings — are we ready to place Bayern Munich in the top group? You know it! But…where does the squad stack up against Europe’s other top teams. Let’s discuss.
- German national team coach Julian Nagelsmann has little room for error and must find a way to break from the same bad habits that help fell him at Bayern Munich.
- Listener Q&A — questions on Harry Kane, the inner workings of Bavarian Football Works, and Noël Aséko Nkili’s future.
- Reviewing the latest episode of HBO’s Task.
